


The Soprano & the Schoolteacher

by Jougetsu



Category: MONTGOMERY L. M. - Works, Original Work
Genre: F/F, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 11:35:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jougetsu/pseuds/Jougetsu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mary “Polly” Lawrence had to find out that her dearest friend Sarah Clark was returning to the Island through gossip at Campbell’s General Store.</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>An original f/f slice-of-life story in the style of L. M. Montgomery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Soprano & the Schoolteacher

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in the same hazy late Victorian era/early Edwardian era Canada that Montgomery wrote extensively about. This story is set roughly in the 1880s/90s on Prince Edward Island, but a few liberties have been taken. Rating is mainly to be a warning about queer themes, the work will likely stay pretty much in the PG/PG13 realm.

Mary “Polly” Lawrence had to find out that her dearest friend Sarah Clark was returning to the Island through gossip at Campbell’s General Store. Despite their faithful correspondence spanning more than a decade, Polly had been left entirely outside the loop. While she had always wondered if Sarah’s letters were carefully constructed to be chatty and trivial there could now be no doubt. 

That May morning Polly had merely needed more ink, having been struck by a bit of a writing mania while correcting essays, and had tarried at Campbell’s only to consider some lawn for a gown when Sarah’s name caught her attention. 

“Now our John found out from the Gillis girl who was having tea with Mora Flemming at the hotel that Sarah Clark is all set to settle down here and not a soul knows why,” Mrs. Campbell said breathlessly to her audience. “There’s probably been some terrible scandal in Europe that she’s avoiding. You know how those performing types get.” 

Mrs. Campbell was one of the south shore Campbells, a clan that prided themselves on being newsy and up-to-date on everything and speculating future trends when there was no news to spread. Even with her reputation as a known gossip there was something authoritative about her air so that she looked every inch a queen holding court even if she was only having tea in the corner of her husband’s store.

“At nearly thirty she’s likely been crowded out by the younger, prettier sopranos,” Mrs. Shaw pounced on the topic eagerly. Probably, Polly thought, because she had never been pretty or talented. “Harriet Tiller’s daughter and old Clara Stratford’s niece are going abroad this summer for piano and reciting. They’d put that spinster’s nose in a joint, belles that they are. Seems to me all our Island beauties are leaving.” 

And you’re probably glad of it, Polly thought to herself, inspecting the fabric more thoroughly. Oh she really didn’t have a practical use for the lawn and an evening gown of it would incite either ridicule or notions that she was desperately husband-hunting.

“Perhaps she’s just resting her voice for the season,” timid Miss Thayer ventured. “I’ve read that’s a common practice among concert women. Mother says that the sea air always does wonders for health.” 

For all the years that Polly never had a thought or use for shyer-than-violets Millie Thayer her heart suddenly softened towards the younger woman and her mood lifted. Perhaps she’d make an airy summer day dress, surely that’d give rise to least amount of talk. 

“Oh you’re a precious dear, Millie,” Mrs. Campbell condescended. “If only all the world were like you.” She was about to pick the brains of the others for what kind of scandal Sarah high-and-mighty Clark might have gotten into when she recognized Mary. “Miss Lawrence! Well you’ve been so quiet I didn’t see you there at the counter. Why don’t I cut up that lawn for you? You were so close to the Clark girls as a little thing weren’t you? Has Sarah told you why she’s coming back this summer? Of course if it’s a matter of confidence you needn’t betray a word of it, but you know if it’s bound to be common knowledge you may as well share.” 

“I know as much you do,” Polly curtly replied. Pride wouldn’t allow her to reveal she knew even less than the others until that moment and the last tender vestiges of the friendship kept her from speculations that would feed the gossip mill. People talked about single women more than married ones in general and what reached her own ears about herself was none too flattering. She’d be quite the hypocrite to fuel stories about fellow spinsters. 

“Oh, then it must be a hardy scandal if she hasn’t told you!” Mrs. Newton chimed in, over her third cup of tea. “I remember how devoted you two were. Didn’t you cry a full fortnight when she left with her aunt? Your sister said you hardly ate a thing and you came to school looking like a hollowed out china doll for a month afterward.”

Fourteen years had softened the anguish of a girlhood friendship’s farewell, but Polly blushed to realize how well others recalled her original distress. Of course Mrs. Newton had been a classmate of hers at the time, but didn’t she have more than a decade of new tragedies to relish since then? “I don’t recall. Girls are prone to hysterics at that age,” years of teaching made Polly quite artful at concealing her emotions. One had to in order to survive the classroom. “Indeed we’ve had several such goings on this past spring. I believe your Belinda was quite distraught over a seat change.”

“Belinda is a very feeling child,” huffed the wounded mother as though Belinda’s histrionics were incomparable to Polly’s sorrows of long ago. Polly would have agreed with the sentiment had it been spoken aloud though not in the way Mrs. Newton would have liked. 

“Two bottles of ink and five yards of lawn, anything else for you Miss Lawrence? We had some lovely new hats come in from Charlottetown that are all the rage,” Mrs. Campbell smiled sugar-sweet, if she couldn’t get news from the schoolteacher she could surely get more of a sale. “They’d be just the thing to put you in style.” 

“No thank you, Mrs. Campbell. I’m afraid I’ve stayed too long this afternoon, another time perhaps,” Polly lied knowing full well she’d rather make the trip to Charlottetown than stay another moment. There was an awful pit in her stomach and she meant to hurry home to pen a falsely cheerful letter of polite inquiries to Sarah. “Good day, ladies.” 

“Mary Lawrence gives herself airs just because she’s been to the States,” Mrs. Shaw declared after Polly was out the door. “And wasted family money on a fancy college just to educate herself into old maid-hood.”

And there was nothing more that could be said about that!


End file.
